1. Grandia (PlayStation)
2. Jungle Hunt (Xbox - Taito Legends)
3. Jungle Hunt (Atari 2600)
4. Jungle Hunt (Plug & Play - ColecoVision Flashback)
5. Donkey Kong (Atari 2600)
6. Donkey Kong (Intellivision)
7. Donkey Kong (ColecoVision)
8. Bubble Bobble (NES)
9. Side Arms: Hyper Dyne (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
10. 1941: Counter Attack (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
11. Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (PSP)
12. The Ninja Kids (Xbox - Taito Legends)
13. Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)
14. Golden Axe Warrior (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
15. Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 (Dreamcast)
16. Growl (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
17. Arabian Magic (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
18. Dungeon Magic (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
19. Gekirindan (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
20. Ys II (Saturn - Falcom Classics II)
21. Darius Gaiden (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
22. G Darius (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
23. Giana Sisters DS (DS)
24. RayStorm (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
25. Mr. Do! (ColecoVision)
26. Beauty & the Beast (Intellivision)
27. Boxing (PlayStation 2 - Activision Anthology)
28. Crystalis (NES)
29. Dragon Warrior (NES)
30. Faxanadu (NES)
31. Tombs & Treasure (NES)
32. Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
33. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
34. Kirby Super Star (SNES)
35. Hoshi no Kirby 64 (Nintendo 64)
36. Kirby: Triple Deluxe (3DS)
37. Dig Dug (Wii - Namco Museum Megamix)
38. Phoenix (Xbox - Taito Legends)
39. Phoenix (Atari 2600)
40. Pleiads (Xbox - Tecmo Classic Arcade)
41. Kangaroo (Atari 2600)
42. Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy)
43. Gorf (Atari 2600)
44. Richard Scarry's Huckle and Lowly's Busiest Day Ever (Pico)
45. Mickey's Blast Into the Past (Pico)
46. Secret of Mana (SNES)
47. Psycho Soldier (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
48. Genshi-Tou 1930's (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
49. Datsugoku: Prisoners of War (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
50. SAR: Search and Rescue (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
2. Jungle Hunt (Xbox - Taito Legends)
3. Jungle Hunt (Atari 2600)
4. Jungle Hunt (Plug & Play - ColecoVision Flashback)
5. Donkey Kong (Atari 2600)
6. Donkey Kong (Intellivision)
7. Donkey Kong (ColecoVision)
8. Bubble Bobble (NES)
9. Side Arms: Hyper Dyne (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
10. 1941: Counter Attack (PSP - Capcom Classics Collection Remixed)
11. Ys: The Ark of Napishtim (PSP)
12. The Ninja Kids (Xbox - Taito Legends)
13. Neutopia (TurboGrafx-16)
14. Golden Axe Warrior (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
15. Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2 (Dreamcast)
16. Growl (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
17. Arabian Magic (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
18. Dungeon Magic (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
19. Gekirindan (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
20. Ys II (Saturn - Falcom Classics II)
21. Darius Gaiden (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
22. G Darius (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
23. Giana Sisters DS (DS)
24. RayStorm (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
25. Mr. Do! (ColecoVision)
26. Beauty & the Beast (Intellivision)
27. Boxing (PlayStation 2 - Activision Anthology)
28. Crystalis (NES)
29. Dragon Warrior (NES)
30. Faxanadu (NES)
31. Tombs & Treasure (NES)
32. Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
33. Kirby's Adventure (NES)
34. Kirby Super Star (SNES)
35. Hoshi no Kirby 64 (Nintendo 64)
36. Kirby: Triple Deluxe (3DS)
37. Dig Dug (Wii - Namco Museum Megamix)
38. Phoenix (Xbox - Taito Legends)
39. Phoenix (Atari 2600)
40. Pleiads (Xbox - Tecmo Classic Arcade)
41. Kangaroo (Atari 2600)
42. Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy)
43. Gorf (Atari 2600)
44. Richard Scarry's Huckle and Lowly's Busiest Day Ever (Pico)
45. Mickey's Blast Into the Past (Pico)
46. Secret of Mana (SNES)
47. Psycho Soldier (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
48. Genshi-Tou 1930's (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
49. Datsugoku: Prisoners of War (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
50. SAR: Search and Rescue (PSP - SNK Arcade Classics 0)
51. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES)
52. Tic-Tac-Toe / Shooting Gallery / Doodle / Quadra-Doodle (Channel F)
53. Robot War / Torpedo Alley (Channel F)
54. Pinball Challenge (Channel F)
55. Elevator Action (Xbox - Taito Legends)
56. Elevator Action II (PlayStation 2 - Taito Legends 2)
57. Altered Beast (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
58. Congo Bongo (Xbox 360 - Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection)
59. International Soccer (Commodore 64)
60. Out of this World! / Helicopter Rescue! (Odyssey²)
The Year Challenge continues.
1979...
Out of this World! / Helicopter Rescue!
Finding a suitable game from this year was a bit tricky. My top choices - Armor Battle (Intellivision) and Hockey! / Soccer! (also for the Odyssey²) both turned out to be two-players only. Since I had dragged the O² out of storage and had it hooked up, I decided to seek out another action-packed 1979 title for that particular console. I settled on Out of this World! / Helicopter Rescue!, which, as you may have guessed, is comprised of two "sub-games." A hi-res scan of the box art found on GameFAQs informs me that Out of this World! supports "One or two players!" and that Helicopter Rescue is suitable for "One or more players." Good to go!
Out of this World! is, in fact, not the seminal French Amiga adventure. This one has an exclamation point! What we have here is an incredibly simplified copy of Atari's Lunar Lander. There's no steering or jagged moon terrain here, just a flat lunar surface and a ship that only travels vertically up and down. Thus only the fire button (for thrusting) is used; there is no joystick movement needed. You ship begins in outer space and begins to plummet to the lunar surface. A few careful presses of the fire button will slow it to a gentle landing. Then it's time to launch upward and connect with the mothership. This is where fuel comes into play; there's a limited supply and you don't want to waste too much on the initial landing. Oh, and the game box lied. This a two player game. There's no AI opponent, nor is there an option to choose no opponent whatsoever. The game is won if you connect to the mothership ten times before the other player - who, in my case, was no one... So I decided to set an arbitrary criteria for beating this - ten trips to the mothership with no crashes. Next game!
Helicopter Rescue! is like a half-assed Choplifter! (dear God make the exclamation points stop). There's no action here. No tension, no fear of losing, no antagonists, nothing. This is the game: you're a helicopter, you "rescue" a guy standing on a building by dropping a basket to his aid, you return him to the ground. That's it. This goes on for two minutes. But with "One or more players" there's some potential for good competition, right? No, because the box lied again! This is a one player game. The second joystick doesn't do anything. I guess theoretically more than one person could play if each person passed the joystick around after every round. But by that logic any video game could support an infinite number of players. The "high score" (mine was a whopping 6, though I've heard that the pros can reach 7) isn't even saved anyway.
Out of this World! / Helicopter Rescue! doesn't seem to have many fans.
The Video Game Critic states:
And The Odyssey² Homepage:
And while I wasn't thrilled with this cart I can't bring myself to hate it. It still oozes that awkward quirky charm that characterizes so many "bad" second gen titles. It's a humorous kusoge game, and I'd even (somewhat hesitantly) recommend it to those who own an Odyssey² and are looking for a good chuckle.
Out of this World! is, in fact, not the seminal French Amiga adventure. This one has an exclamation point! What we have here is an incredibly simplified copy of Atari's Lunar Lander. There's no steering or jagged moon terrain here, just a flat lunar surface and a ship that only travels vertically up and down. Thus only the fire button (for thrusting) is used; there is no joystick movement needed. You ship begins in outer space and begins to plummet to the lunar surface. A few careful presses of the fire button will slow it to a gentle landing. Then it's time to launch upward and connect with the mothership. This is where fuel comes into play; there's a limited supply and you don't want to waste too much on the initial landing. Oh, and the game box lied. This a two player game. There's no AI opponent, nor is there an option to choose no opponent whatsoever. The game is won if you connect to the mothership ten times before the other player - who, in my case, was no one... So I decided to set an arbitrary criteria for beating this - ten trips to the mothership with no crashes. Next game!
Helicopter Rescue! is like a half-assed Choplifter! (dear God make the exclamation points stop). There's no action here. No tension, no fear of losing, no antagonists, nothing. This is the game: you're a helicopter, you "rescue" a guy standing on a building by dropping a basket to his aid, you return him to the ground. That's it. This goes on for two minutes. But with "One or more players" there's some potential for good competition, right? No, because the box lied again! This is a one player game. The second joystick doesn't do anything. I guess theoretically more than one person could play if each person passed the joystick around after every round. But by that logic any video game could support an infinite number of players. The "high score" (mine was a whopping 6, though I've heard that the pros can reach 7) isn't even saved anyway.
Out of this World! / Helicopter Rescue! doesn't seem to have many fans.
The Video Game Critic states:
this cartridge is a turkey all the way
And The Odyssey² Homepage:
Are you ready to play a thrill-packed, exciting, challenging game with fantastic graphics and sound? Well, then, stay away from this cartridge! These have routinely been called the worst Odyssey² games ever.
And while I wasn't thrilled with this cart I can't bring myself to hate it. It still oozes that awkward quirky charm that characterizes so many "bad" second gen titles. It's a humorous kusoge game, and I'd even (somewhat hesitantly) recommend it to those who own an Odyssey² and are looking for a good chuckle.
Onward to the 1980s!